What might happen if you gave yourself 4 days to just be with you? 4 days without the noise of the outside world, the demands of other people, or the rush, rush, rush of your routine?
What might you discover if you silenced the racket of social media, TV, radio and the blah-blah-blah of well-meaning friends and family?
What might you hear if the only thing you listened to was the song of your soul, the whispers of your heart?
Last week, I cut myself off from all connections to the outside world, set aside the routine demands of my work week, and spent 4 days in relative solitude and silence.
No clients. No social media. No TV. No screens of any kind. I checked my email once a day, in case a client needed me.
My intention was to use these 4 days to get quiet and get clear on my upcoming launch and make some smart changes to my one-on-on coaching services.
But these intentions I held loosely. Because my first priority was to drop deep within and listen to my Big Self, my soul. I didn’t want to take charge or try to make something happen. I wanted to let go of control and let Love lead the way.
The results?
4 days of bliss, surprises, and inspiration. Plus, I mapped out my launch (timeline, pre-launch fun, etc.), got clear on my new free challenge (including the title), made changes to my upcoming program, and had a big pricing “ah-ha!”
I threw away my nagging, never-satisfied need for a content creation plan, had a “new offer” epiphany, and wrote a lot.
I wrote a poem. I wrote 2 pages of website copy for my non-biz website. I wrote for the pure pleasure of it. I received a brand new project idea that surprised, scared, and delighted me, and I was shown a way to leverage a current program into a short intensive that I’ll likely release this month.
Sweet!
While all of these results are super great (and feel completely aligned with who I am and who I’m becoming), I was especially delighted by the process. I didn’t push or pressure myself to come up with the perfect launch plan or the catchiest title or the most head-spinning offer.
Instead, I let go, got quiet, and listened. To the Divine. To my inner hum. To my soul. It felt easy, effortless, highly pleasurable and in perfect rhythm with the beat of my being.
I’ve heard of other entrepreneurs taking “workcations,” where they actually pack up, leave their house/office, book a hotel for x-number of days/nights, cut off from their normal work and life, and focus on getting shit done. When I was writing my eBook, I did something similar.
But if you dare, I recommend a different kind of workcation. A soul-inspired, Love-led workcation, where you may have a goal or intention in mind, but you’re not wedded to it.
Instead, your primary intention is to just be with yourself and be open to whatever wants to bubble up from within. To not push to get stuff done but to instead follow the inspiration that arises in the moment. To be led not by your goals and deadlines but by your heart, soul and inner guidance.
If you were to take this kind of soul-inspired workcation, what new ideas, perspectives or creative impulses might rise up to sweep you off your feet?
What might you hear when you shut off all the outside voices, social media, and persistent distractions in order to just listen to you and you alone?
There’s only one way to find out.
If you decide to give yourself 4 or more days to tune out the external world and dive deep within yourself, I have some recommendations for you.
- Let everyone know you won’t be available. Including your friends, family, clients and all of your fans on social media. By declaring your unavailability, you bolster your resolve and make it pretty near impossible to suddenly show up on Facebook with a comment on your friend’s photo of her newest hair cut.
- Start your day with some kind of meditation or practice that allows you to let go of the noise inside your mind and connect with your heart and soul. During my 4-day soul-inspired workcation, I meditated every morning for at least an hour and did the same in the early evening. If you’re not into meditation, you could take a walk. Or listen to a guided visualization. Or watching an Abraham-Hicks video on YouTube.If you don’t have practice that let’s you quiet your monkey mind and connect with your soul, this could be a good time to start one! If you need help with this, hit me up!
- Do not engage in any activity that could drown out the voice of your soul. Like… social media, TV, podcasts or chitchatting with a friend. If you have family obligations, see if you can get friends and other family members to take on some of them so you have as much time as possible to just be. Either way, limit your interactions during these 4 days.
- Practice being in just this moment. Be present, open, available and in love with each moment, moment by moment. Your mind will drag you into the future or repeat stories of the past. That’s okay. Just bring your awareness back to the present. You. Now. This. Only this.
- If your mind starts freaking out and taunting you with its old, fear-driven diatribe, chill. Don’t buy into it. Your mind is only a passenger on this soul-driven journey; tell it to take a back seat.
- Trust yourself. Trust what you feel. Ask for guidance and receive it in your heart. Act on that guidance. Let it lead you.
You can’t do this wrong. Because it’s not about “doing.” Your only commitment is to give yourself the space and silence to listen, to be present.
Whatever happens or doesn’t happen within that space is perfect.
As evolving entrepreneurs, we’re so addicted to looking to others for advice, expertise, strategies, insight and ideas. But all of that well-meaning advice and guidance is useless, even damaging, if you don’t weigh it all on the scales within your own soul. You need to be the last word. You need to sink deep and know what’s truly right for you.
No one knows better than you.
No one else can point the way.
Sink into the sacred space within.
Listen to the echo of your beating heart.
Trust what it tells you.